Heavy-hitters examine civil service reform
Reform of Government Commission will “go back to first principles and ask: what sort of civil service do we want?” Beckie Smith reports
Aformer Treasury permanent secretary, the ex-chair of Ofcom and two erstwhile secretaries of state are among a new group formed by the Policy Exchange think tank to examine how best to reform the civil service. The Reform of Government Commission will “examine how the civil service can be improved and modernised”, Policy Exchange has announced.
It will be chaired by Dame Patricia Hodgson, who chaired Ofcom from 2014 to 2017 and who is also a member of the government’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation board.
Its members include former Treasury perm sec Lord Nick Macpherson, former Equality and Human Rights Commission chair Trevor Phillips; and former chief of the general staff General Sir Peter Wall. Ex-education secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan and former communities secretary and Labour Party chair Hazel Blears will also sit on the commission, along with Lord Jonathan
Caine, who was special adviser to six Northern Ireland secretaries.
The commission will look at five areas: context and challenge; capacity, skills and rewards; structures of government; digital, data and new technologies; and connecting with the public.
Hodgson said it would “go back to first principles and ask: what sort of civil service do we want? What should its ethos be? How should accountability be maximised through clearer lines of responsibility? How can it better serve governments of all hues?”
The commission’s work, which is likely to be closely watched by government as ministers develop their own reform plans, will build on a report on Whitehall reform published last year, Hodgson said.
The paper argued for Downing Street to hold more power over the civil service; for the return of extended ministerial offices; and recruitment and progression reform “to enhance expertise, accountability and institutional memory”.
Hodgson added: “Above all, bearing in mind successive failed attempts in the past, we will focus on the execution of civil service reform – the ‘how’ and the ‘who’, as much as the ‘why’ and the ‘what’.”